The Fierce Urgency of Now

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the importance of "Now" and the need for "Urgency." He said,

"We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood -- it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, 'Too late.'"

As it relates to how you manage your time or focus on what is most important, what do you need to have a "fierce urgency" about-before it's too late.

It's All About The Throwing

Seth Godin is one of our favorite authors and bloggers. His ability to make you think is incredible. Last week he posted a blog about juggling. His first line deserves repeating here: Throwing is more important than catching.

We won't spoil the blog for you. But reflect on that one line in relation to planning the use of your time and energy. If we create a thorough plan of how to best use our time, we will get more done than if we weakly plan and then spend much of our time reacting to crises and other tasks that are simply convenient and "close at hand." Plato said, "The beginning is the most important part of any work."

How could you improve your throwing (planning) so that you are better at catching and ultimately keep accomplishing your purpose (successful juggling)?

Quality vs. Quantity

Think about this question for a moment-Is it easier to put more time into something or to improve the quality of something? In other words, is it easier to do more (work faster) vs. doing better?

Doing more is an investment of time but doing better is complicated. It takes learning, brainpower and trial and error. In fact, doing better can require an investment in time as well (quantity). Maybe it is time to slow down and assess the quality of the work that you are producing. If the quality of work is related to the things that are most important to you then the quantity isn't going to be as important.

Ringmaster Literacy

I was reading about "Financial Literacy" a few days ago. It's a basic concept that is found in many financially-based books. Many tout it as the way to begin creating real wealth for yourself. Here are the 4 key elements:

1. Understand the difference between an asset and a liability.
2. Concentrate your efforts on buying income-earning assets.
3. Focus on keeping liabilities and expenses to a minimum.
4. Mind your own business.

As I reviewed the process I began thinking about how I could apply this same process to how I use my time and energy. Kind of a "Ringmaster Literacy" if you will. Would it have the same effect? Let's look at it:

Understand the difference between an asset and a liability. I would evaluate every use of my time from the perspective of how it would contribute to my purpose (asset) or take away from an opportunity to accomplish my purpose (liability).

Concentrate my efforts on buying income-earning assets. I would look for ways to invest my time to get the best return on accomplishing my purpose. Not just spending it with no thought as to its future impact on my success.

Focus on keeping liabilities and expenses to a minimum. Every potential distraction or interruption would take only the minimum amount of time and effort from me-unless it was an opportunity to further contribute to my purpose. Sometimes you might get a chance to invest in something that was originally not in your portfolio. If you have built up some "wealth of time" you might be able to invest in it-and reap the rewards.

Mind my own business. I would look at what is important to me and my purpose. I would be my own ringmaster more often and not let others run my circus.

Hmmmmmm... it just might work.

Manage your Meetings

Have you ever left an hour meeting and felt like you had just wasted 60 minutes of your day? Meetings can be a BIG time waster if they are not planned and executed effectively. Consider some key elements for effective meetings:

• Have an agenda and stick to it. Make sure the agenda items are pertinent to the participants


• If you look at an agenda and the items don't relate to you, don't be afraid to ask to be excused


• Cancel ineffective or unnecessary meetings - especially reoccurring meetings


• Be selective with whom you invite to your meetings. Most people won't be upset if they are not invited. They have plenty to do without another meeting


• Have someone keep minutes of your meetings so you are not having the same meeting, where you are having the same discussions and making the same decisions.


• Don't be afraid to end a meeting early. If the agenda has been covered, adjourn.


• If your meeting is about to go over the time allotted, stop and plan another meeting to allow people to stick to their individual schedules.


• If your meetings seem to go too long because participants are long winded, have a "stand up" meeting where there are no chairs for people to sit down. You will be amazed at how quickly people will get down to business if they don't have a place to sit


• Make sure that if you are meeting to make a decision, that you actually make a clear decision before the end of the meeting


• Talk with those that you work with on how to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your meetings. How can you improve?

It is estimated that most managers spend 50% of their time in meetings. If half of those meetings are ineffective, the cost to the manager AND the organization is quite significant.